Luna isn't eating ...
Posted: Sat Oct 03, 2015 3:25 pm
So my IRN girl Luna isn't eating. We've had her for 3-4 months now and she was eating anything and everything fine, apples and chillies were a favourite, but she'd happily eat whatever was in her bowl/forage toys/kebab. She's very tame, hasn't been handled pretty much at all for the past 2 years but doesn't bite, will just push your finger away if she doesn't want something.
In the last few weeks she's become OBSESSED with her ball toys. She came to me in a big cage with one rubber ball on the bottom of the cage and one bell, whereas my birds have always had tonnes of toys to pic, and choose from that rotate in and out, so of course I had to rectify the situation and since she loved her rubber ball so much and I had a heap of different types of balls in the toy bin (my GCC went through a love of balls when he was younger) I slowly added them to her cage. And them some more. And then some more. And then the feed store had cat jingle balls for a dollar for 2 at the counter. And now she doesn't get off the floor of her cage for anything. She sleeps down there, plays down there and doesn't come up for pretty much anything.
From what I can see she's eaten a few bites of food for the past week. She always has mix of pellets (Vetafarm Nutriblend) and a little amount of seed (parrot mix minus the sunflower seeds which we use for training) in a bowl, and every morning the birds get a mix of brown rice, peas, corn, celery, capsicum, baby spinach and whatever else is left over and healthy. I also put in a kebab with some veggies that won't go yuck (generally carrot with some chunks of cardboard for chewing).
Every morning I put in her bowl of veg and rice, and take it out a few hours later and she's touched nothing. I've tried offering at different times of the day, offering less, nothing. Her bowl of pellets and seed hasn't been touched in over a week, she'll have a bite of carrot generally but that's it. The other day I was eating a sandwich and she stole a few bites of cheese (not great for them right?) and a small bite of roast beef, and yesterday she had a few bites of watermelon. She usually goes nuts for chilli hut I put some on her kebab this morning right down at floor level (hanging off the wall) but she couldn't care less.
I can feel that she's lost a little conditioning around her chest and she's been doing a few just water poos, not diarrhoea, just a wee really. She's going to be going to the bird vet (Melbourne Bird Clinic) if she doesn't start eating in the next day, but she's just so active so I'm not convinced she's sick. She plays and plays and plays all day. I tired taking ALL her balls out of her cage (she has other toys obviously) in an effort to get her up off the floor and closer to her food bowl, she just started tunnelling under and shredding the newspaper on the bottom of her cage.
Do I just wait it out?? Will she eat when she gets more hungry?? I've started adding a spoon of LSA with all her food so whatever she does eat she's getting some more protein and fats, is this ok to do? I've just thought maybe we need to sit down and eat together a bit more? We've just had 2 weeks of camps at the kids camp my husband and I live at and therefore haven't been eating at home, could that effect her? She's just not interested in at all in her food.
Sorry for the essay ...
In the last few weeks she's become OBSESSED with her ball toys. She came to me in a big cage with one rubber ball on the bottom of the cage and one bell, whereas my birds have always had tonnes of toys to pic, and choose from that rotate in and out, so of course I had to rectify the situation and since she loved her rubber ball so much and I had a heap of different types of balls in the toy bin (my GCC went through a love of balls when he was younger) I slowly added them to her cage. And them some more. And then some more. And then the feed store had cat jingle balls for a dollar for 2 at the counter. And now she doesn't get off the floor of her cage for anything. She sleeps down there, plays down there and doesn't come up for pretty much anything.
From what I can see she's eaten a few bites of food for the past week. She always has mix of pellets (Vetafarm Nutriblend) and a little amount of seed (parrot mix minus the sunflower seeds which we use for training) in a bowl, and every morning the birds get a mix of brown rice, peas, corn, celery, capsicum, baby spinach and whatever else is left over and healthy. I also put in a kebab with some veggies that won't go yuck (generally carrot with some chunks of cardboard for chewing).
Every morning I put in her bowl of veg and rice, and take it out a few hours later and she's touched nothing. I've tried offering at different times of the day, offering less, nothing. Her bowl of pellets and seed hasn't been touched in over a week, she'll have a bite of carrot generally but that's it. The other day I was eating a sandwich and she stole a few bites of cheese (not great for them right?) and a small bite of roast beef, and yesterday she had a few bites of watermelon. She usually goes nuts for chilli hut I put some on her kebab this morning right down at floor level (hanging off the wall) but she couldn't care less.
I can feel that she's lost a little conditioning around her chest and she's been doing a few just water poos, not diarrhoea, just a wee really. She's going to be going to the bird vet (Melbourne Bird Clinic) if she doesn't start eating in the next day, but she's just so active so I'm not convinced she's sick. She plays and plays and plays all day. I tired taking ALL her balls out of her cage (she has other toys obviously) in an effort to get her up off the floor and closer to her food bowl, she just started tunnelling under and shredding the newspaper on the bottom of her cage.
Do I just wait it out?? Will she eat when she gets more hungry?? I've started adding a spoon of LSA with all her food so whatever she does eat she's getting some more protein and fats, is this ok to do? I've just thought maybe we need to sit down and eat together a bit more? We've just had 2 weeks of camps at the kids camp my husband and I live at and therefore haven't been eating at home, could that effect her? She's just not interested in at all in her food.
Sorry for the essay ...